Changing Gravel In Existing Tank

[FLFishChik]

Need advice on how best to do this. Currently there is about 3 inches of natural gravel in the tank. I want to change it to black. Should I leave the current in and cover it? Remove some? Remove all?

[Theplatymaster]

@FLFishChik

A. what are you trying to acheive by changing the gravel, ive changed substrate before and its REALLY Annoying!

[knee]

Are you replacing with black gravel or sand? I would catch all the fish and put them in a bucket with the sponge filter and remove all of the gravel, then put new substrate in. Unless you want a mixed natural/black look then you can just dump the new gravel on top. 

[MattyM]

Heh I think I have that same gravel in a 10g and I also wish it was black. But woof, that's a project, and the tank is about seasoned so I don't want to mess with it. But if I did, I would do it like @knee said, and also do a full dose of Fritzyme 7 when adding the fish back in, and of course monitor params. 

Myself, I just decided to start growing more plants to cover it. But if your tank is newer then maybe the switch wouldn't be too bad.

[FLFishChik]

On 2/8/2023 at 2:29 PM, MattyM said:

Heh I think I have that same gravel in a 10g and I also wish it was black. But woof, that's a project, and the tank is about seasoned so I don't want to mess with it. But if I did, I would do it like @knee said, and also do a full dose of Fritzyme 7 when adding the fish back in, and of course monitor params. 

Myself, I just decided to start growing more plants to cover it. But if your tank is newer then maybe the switch wouldn't be too bad.

I’m thinking to just leave it. It’s too much hassle. I just wanted black because it looks awesome in my 20g and 5g tanks… but I really don’t think it’s worth the trouble now.

[MattyM]

On 2/8/2023 at 1:42 PM, FLFishChik said:

I just wanted black because it looks awesome in my 20g and 5g tanks

Same boat - have black sand in a 20H and black ecocomplete in another tank, both are newer - so at least I know what I like now 🙂

[knee]

On 2/8/2023 at 11:42 AM, FLFishChik said:

I’m thinking to just leave it. It’s too much hassle. I just wanted black because it looks awesome in my 20g and 5g tanks… but I really don’t think it’s worth the trouble now.

But that will give you the chance to rescape 😁 

I do understand the work that needs to be put in when doing a task like this tho. If I can avoid doing something super tasking I definitely would 

[FLFishChik]

On 2/8/2023 at 3:41 PM, knee said:

But that will give you the chance to rescape 😁 

I do understand the work that needs to be put in when doing a task like this tho. If I can avoid doing something super tasking I definitely would 

Yeah, that was what I was going to do, but it’s a lot of gravel to remove. I’ll just keep it and rescape anyway… less work and no danger of crashing the cycle. I’ll learn to live with the gravel color, lol

[Theplatymaster]

On 2/8/2023 at 2:42 PM, FLFishChik said:

I’m thinking to just leave it. It’s too much hassle. I just wanted black because it looks awesome in my 20g and 5g tanks… but I really don’t think it’s worth the trouble now.

youve got that right. i have changed substrates multiple times (From gravel to sand, and then sand to gravel) and it is very annoying. You need to

1.unplant everything, and take everything out of them tank, except for maybe water, fish, and filter.

2. scoop out all the old substrate straining between scoops to not take too much water with it

3.have somewhere to put the old substrate

4.get a new substrate and wash it

5. Put that substrate in

6.Rescape

7.you just lost a major source of BB, hopefully your tank is very understocked.

take it from me, its not work it.

[FLFishChik]

On 2/8/2023 at 6:16 PM, Theplatymaster said:

youve got that right. i have changed substrates multiple times (From gravel to sand, and then sand to gravel) and it is very annoying. You need to

1.unplant everything, and take everything out of them tank, except for maybe water, fish, and filter.

2. scoop out all the old substrate straining between scoops to not take too much water with it

3.have somewhere to put the old substrate

4.get a new substrate and wash it

5. Put that substrate in

6.Rescape

7.you just lost a major source of BB, hopefully your tank is very understocked.

take it from me, its not work it.

Yeah, the more I thought about it logically, the less excited I was to do it. I am still going to try and rescape, just not in the grand scale I had originally wanted, lol. 

[Theplatymaster]

On 2/8/2023 at 6:36 PM, FLFishChik said:

Yeah, the more I thought about it logically, the less excited I was to do it. I am still going to try and rescape, just not in the grand scale I had originally wanted, lol. 

rescaping is SO much easier then changing substrates.

[knee]

On 2/8/2023 at 3:10 PM, FLFishChik said:

Yeah, that was what I was going to do, but it’s a lot of gravel to remove. I’ll just keep it and rescape anyway… less work and no danger of crashing the cycle. I’ll learn to live with the gravel color, lol

Just get a bunch of crypts to cover the substrate 🤣

But if ever you decide to change out your substrate, don't be afraid of crashing your cycle. Up to 84% of BB is in your filter, the rest are inside the aquarium scattered on whatever surface they can hold on to. Just keep the filter running in tank water and your cycle will be fine.

[FLFishChik]

On 2/8/2023 at 6:37 PM, Theplatymaster said:

rescaping is SO much easier then changing substrates.

Agreed! Right now, it's just a hodge podge of plants Ive thrown in there in whatever spot was open. Now, I want to make it look more puuuurdy, lol. I think I'll be foregoing the Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus though, it grows way to fast and I'm tired of having to trim it now, lol. which means..... ROOM FOR MORE PLANTS!!!

[Torbay]

Just an FYI in case others are considering changing the color of substrate...I changed my few-months-old 40 gal from white pool filter sand to black blasting sand. It took about 3 hours each on 2 consecutive days. I also only had a few large river rocks, a couple Anubias and 3 fancy goldfish. 

Day 1 I siphoned out 80% of the sand with a 1/2" clear hose into a 5gal bucket. This made it easier to get out mostly sand and not too much water.

Day 2 I removed remaining sand and started rinsing the Black Diamond med grain blasting sand. It's not very dusty, but wanted to play it safe. Scooped in the black sand with a plastic cup then spread it around with a spatula. The hardest part was all the trips up and down the stairs - tank is on 2nd floor. 

Fish didn't seem upset staying in the tank, didn't have any water parameter swings and tank has been fine since. I think it would have been a lot harder had it been a heavily planted tank with gravel since you can't siphon that out!

[FLFishChik]

On 2/8/2023 at 7:34 PM, Torbay said:

Just an FYI in case others are considering changing the color of substrate...I changed my few-months-old 40 gal from white pool filter sand to black blasting sand. It took about 3 hours each on 2 consecutive days. I also only had a few large river rocks, a couple Anubias and 3 fancy goldfish. 

Day 1 I siphoned out 80% of the sand with a 1/2" clear hose into a 5gal bucket. This made it easier to get out mostly sand and not too much water.

Day 2 I removed remaining sand and started rinsing the Black Diamond med grain blasting sand. It's not very dusty, but wanted to play it safe. Scooped in the black sand with a plastic cup then spread it around with a spatula. The hardest part was all the trips up and down the stairs - tank is on 2nd floor. 

Fish didn't seem upset staying in the tank, didn't have any water parameter swings and tank has been fine since. I think it would have been a lot harder had it been a heavily planted tank with gravel since you can't siphon that out!

There's like 30+ lbs of gravel in this tank and I really dont want to stress about finding a temp place for the fish, scooping out the gravel, washing another 30+ lbs of gravel to replace, then wrangling up the fish to put back in, lol.... Im lazy like that. I dont want the black gravel enough to go through the headache of removing all of the substrate. I'll learn to love it as is.

Edited February 9, 2023 by FLFishChik

[Torbay]

@FLFishChik: Hey, I totally get it. Do what's best for you and it sounds like with your setup, I'd opt out of changing the substrate with all you've got going on in your tank! I had about 50 lbs of sand and not much else and it was still a 2 day job!

[pomlady]

Hi I just joined, thanks for having me.  I have 4 fancy goldfish, small ones and just purchased a 50 gallon tank.  I was thinking of Black Diamond but read bad reviews on it regarding fish and plants dying, so I decided against it.  I really want to set up a planted tank as my fish are fine right now with plants in their smaller tank. I have larger stones as a base in the small tank now but it is more messy with food getting in between them, plus they don't really hold the roots in as well as something smaller.

I ended up buying 3 - 20lb bags of Aqua Natural Golden Pearl gravel substrate yesterday and now I am wondering if I should have gone for Black Diamond or some other sand in the first place?  I am not a fan of white colored sand to be honest and the Golden Pearl has a really nice mix of colored gravel.

So wondering how your goldfish are making out with Black Diamond?   Wondering also if I should get something else besides the gravel because of the choking hazard?

Thanks for any information.